Necropolis

Ones know you are missing, they will be looking carefully at everyone who crosses."
    "So what's the fourth way?"
    But she wasn't going to find out. Not then. She hadn't even noticed the telephone in the room, but suddenly it rang. The three men froze, and she saw at once that it wasn't good news. Lohan didn't answer it himself. He gestured at the Japanese man, Red, who snatched up the phone and listened for a moment in silence. He put it down and muttered a few words in Chinese. Scarlett didn't understand what he'd said, nor did she need to. The call was a warning. The Old Ones were here.
    Lohan turned to her, examining her as if for the first time. Even now he seemed undisturbed, refusing to panic.
    "Have they found us?" Scarlett blurted out the question.
    Lohan nodded slowly. "They're outside. The building is surrounded."
    "But how…?"
    "We seem to have missed a trick." Lohan's eyes were still fixed on her. For a few seconds, he didn't speak. Then he worked it out. "You have something with you," he said. "The woman — Mrs. Cheng or someone at Nightrise — gave you something to wear."
    "No —" Scarlett began. But then she remembered. Her hands went to her throat. "The chairman gave me this."
    She was still wearing the jade pendant. Now, with trembling fingers, she unhooked it and took it off.
    The little green stone with the carved insect hung at the end of the chain. She handed it over. "It can't be bugged," she said weakly. "It can't…"
    Lohan examined it with cold anger. Then he turned it round and dangled it in front of her face.
    Scarlett gasped. The creature inside the pendant — the lizard or the locust or whatever it was — was moving. She saw it blink and shift position. Its legs curled up underneath it. One of its wings fluttered.
    Scarlett cried out in revulsion. The thing was alive. And all this time it had been around her neck…
    Lohan laughed briefly and, without humor, closed his fist over the pendant, winding the chain around his wrist.
    "What are we going to do?" Scarlett asked.
    Before anyone could reply, there was an explosion in the street. It sounded soft and far away, but it was followed at once by screaming and the sound of falling glass. There was the wail of police sirens — not one car but any number of them, closing in from all sides.
    Lohan produced an automatic pistol, drawing it out of his back pocket. It was sleek and black, and he handled it expertly, loading it with a clip of ammunition, releasing the safety catch and briefly checking the firing mechanism. 'You must do whatever we tell you," he said. "No questions. No hesitation. Do you understand?"
    Scarlett nodded.
    From somewhere in the building came the first burst of machine-gun fire. Lohan threw the door open, signaled, and together they began to move.
    TWENTY-ONE
    Across the Roof
    Lohan was the first out into the corridor, then Draco and Scarlett, with Red behind. They were all armed, apart from her. The man outside the elevator had unhooked his machine gun and was cradling it in his arms. He didn't look scared. In fact, he was completely relaxed, as if this was all in a day's work.
    Scarlett was feeling sick with anger. This was her fault. The jade pendant that she had been given was bugged in every sense of the word — and it had told the chairman exactly where she was. Why had she even worn it? She should have left it beside the bed. But it was too late to think about it now. The Hong Kong police had arrived. They were already on their way up.
    Her every instinct would have been to get out of there as quickly as they could, but they were moving slowly, taking it one step at a time. Lohan was listening for any sound, his head tilted sideways, his gun level with his shoulder. Scarlett saw him signal to the man at the elevator, pointing with two fingers, ordering him to stay where he was — probably a death sentence. These people had some sort of code among themselves. They did exactly what they were told no matter what it might cost.
    For a brief moment, everything was silent. The police cars had turned off their sirens, and the gunfire had stopped. The corridor was empty. But then, with a surge of alarm, Scarlett saw a blinking light.
    There were two arrows next to the elevator doors, one pointing up, the other down. One of them was flashing. The elevator was on its way up.

    Lohan gestured with the gun. "You follow me. This way."
    They set off down the corridor, but it seemed to Scarlett that he was leading them